Cassette Tapes

I don’t think we’re allowed to put the tapes in landfill ( not sure about the cases) because of what they’re made of. I looked into it recently and there is a company that disposes of them but they’re not cheap ( and fir all I know they might just put them in landfill anyway).Things like that just float around my house because I don’t know what to do with them.

“We do know of one charity who are involved in recycling video tapes. The Butterfly Garden in Cheltenham in Gloucestershire are involved in recycling videotapes.
Tip Top Media in London will collect VHS tapes as well as CDs and floppy discs. They may charge for collection dependent on location, contact them to confirm details.
Terracycle will recycle all types of media including video and cassette tapes. You buy a zero waste box from them, which comes with a prepaid shipping label and fill it up. These cost at £154.57 for a small box and £270.49 for a medium box”.
Crikey. I can’t afford to pay £300 and I bet my cassette tape collection wouldn’t fit into a medium sized box. At least mine is the last generation that has a house full of audio and video tapes.
I might go to my local repair cafe to get advice from them as they’re very much into recycling old electrical equipment etc.

Could you offer them to an art group?

I gave mine to a weaver some years ago and she was delighted.

We took ours to our local Oxfam bookshop and they were happy to have them along with all our vinyl.
People collect them and we could have sold them online but too much of a hassle

It depends who the artists are. Some famous bands can fetch a lot of money depending on the tape. You can actually buy some on Amazon as well.
You could advertise them on Free Cycle to give away.

I've managed to recycle the ones I had left by using them to criss-cross my vegetable beds with them tied to canes. This stops the pigeons and squirrels from getting onto them to dig up or eat my precious veg! Maybe local allotment holders would be happy to take them?

I havent tried to get rid of anyh of my old tapes or cds yet, but definitely would be worth just looking through them to see if you have anything recorded that would be of use or worth something. So even the BBC who rather stupidly over taped lots of programmes without keeping a copy at all, are eager for anyone who has a copy of things like old Goon show or tv things like the Good Life to let them have them. Then again I have one or two to me, precious tapes with my husband speaking on them, and recordings I made of various songs etc. No value to anyone else of course , but wouldnt part with them. Here we have a little shop that does all vinyl records and things so perhaps if you look around or in your local paper there might be omeone like that who would be happy to take them. Think the allotment idea sounds a good use for any rubbish ones.

Would love an answer to this as we are clearing my mums house and she has hundreds of cassette tapes, cds and videos. Already filled three skips up but would love it if I could not send these to landfill

Cambia there is a video rental/shop in Bristol. I think it's a community enterprise? If not it's linked to one?
I heard about it on the radio
I don't know if they would be interested.

20thcenturyflicks.co.uk/

My videos went to a charity shop - some do still take them

There should be no reason why you can't put the plastic cases in your recycling bin for plastic and your recycling plant can tell you what to do withe the tapes if you decide to throw them out..

My council make it very clear that cassette tapes and their cases should not be put in recycling.

We can't recycle: crisp wrappers and pill packets, wax-coated coffee cups, fruit and vegetable netting, polystyrene and bubblewrap, CDs, videos, cassette tapes and their cases, hard plastics, plastic toys and pens.

Other councils may vary, of course.

One of the reasons why I have so much rubbish in my house is that I really worry about putting things in the bin that will end up in landfill and could work its way into the water.

unfortunately places like car boots are chock a block and few sell, unless they are very unusual.
Ditto charity shops they cannot sell them and get them by the box load otherwise if they take them
at our local auction they struggle to get folk to take 2 or 3 boxes full for a pound

Some charity shops will still take them, or you could try the Oxfam Bookshop (our local branch will also take LPs, CDs, DVDs & VHS tapes).
By the way, Boots allegedly have a recycling scheme for blister packs (those little plastic pop-out trays that hold pills). Not every branch takes them, though, so I'll believe it when I see it.
Our local Co-Op, in spite of being specifically listed online as having a recycling box for plastic bags, bread bags, crisp packets, etc. When I took mine in, nobody had even heard of the scheme, much less had a box for the purpose!
I think a lot of these schemes exist more as ticked boxes in the publicity departments of big companies, rather than real places where you can take your recycling. Plastics may be recyclable in theory but, unless someone actually does recycle them (rather than just taking them off the consumers' hands), the planet is effectively still stuck with them.

Today I called in my local Heart Foundation charity shop to enquire if they accepted cd’s and cassette tapes and they do.

If you have a local shop, then take them there.

The Church where I go for an exercise class has a bin by the door to take empty pill blister packs. I don't know how we manage it but I get rid of several every week.

Our charity shop does not take VHS or cassette tapes simply because they don’t sell and we then have your problem finding how to dispose of them

I have sold several on ebay.

Noticed in Tesco store in Chepstow(Wales) they had a bin for make up items,another good move.Not sure if this might be a Welsh government decision as I have not seen a similar bin in English stores.

Our local recycling centre (formerly “the dump “) has a skip for hard plastic. I put the cases in there. The tape itself went to landfill I’m afraid.

Our local Boots got a blister pack recycling bin last Monday 😃